BOSTON (Ticker) -- Paul Pierce scored 13 of his 25 points in the
opening quarter as the Boston Celtics raced to a 17-point lead
and cruised past the New Jersey Nets, 99-86, to snap a four-game
losing streak.

Antoine Walker added 10 points and four rebounds in the quarter
for Boston, which took control early. The Celtics held a 12-9
lead just four minutes into the contest before scoring 12 of the
next 13 points.

Bryant Stith added seven in the opening period, which ended with
Boston holding a 37-22 advantage. The early cushion also was
helped by horrendous shooting by the Nets, who made just 4-of-20
shots.

"I'm very disappointed in just the way we came out from the
beginning," Nets coach Byron Scott said. "There are no other
words to describe it. I think we have guys on this team that
just don't know how to win in this league. There will probably
be eight or nine guys on this list that I would cut right now."

Walker finished with 21 points and a season-high 19 rebounds for
Boston, which has won four of the last five meetings between the
teams.

"I thought Antoine Walker was brilliant tonight," Celtics coach
Rick Pitino said. "It's OK if you miss shots inside but his
rebounding is really picking up. He had 17 the other night and
19 tonight."

"This is a big win for us," Stith said. "We just had to come out
and establish that we were going to be aggressive from the
beginning, so this was a big win for us. ... We can go places
with a lot of confidence."

The second of two free throws by Marbury got the Nets within
12-9 less than four minutes into the contest but Stith hit two
free throws six seconds later to ignite the decisive run.

Pierce had five free throws in the spurt, which was capped by
Vitaly Potapenko's layup that gave Boston a 24-10 cushion with
4:48 to go.

Eric Williams sank two free throws with 2:22 to go to give the
Celtics a 31-14 edge. Both teams struggled from the floor over
the first half of the second quarter but a 14-footer by Pierce
with 5:17 left gave Boston its biggest lead, 47-29.

"There is no excuse for playing the way we did in the first
quarter. No excuse whatsoever," Scott added. "I'm not going to
beg guys to play hard. If they don't want to play hard, let
them sit on the bench by me."

"What we did tonight was we got to the line earlier (and) made
that first quarter real long," Pierce said. "They got in the
penalty like in the first two or three minutes. We were making
our free throws and gradually building our lead. I think it
kind of took them out of being in transition and running because
that's what Stephon does best."

Boston's lead was 55-38 after two quarters and New Jersey was
unable to get closer than six in the second half.

New Jersey got within 59-50 early in the third quarter but Stith
buried a 3-pointer from the right corner to push the lead back
to 12.

The Nets kept chipping away and closed to 62-56 following a
17-footer by Kendall Gill with 4:49 left in the quarter. Walker
answered with four straight points for Boston, which opened a
15-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Former Celtic Sherman Douglas had 13 points and five assists in
23 minutes off the bench. Former Net Kenny Anderson had 12
points in 14 minutes off the bench for Boston.

Pierce was 13-of-16 from the line, tying his career high for
free throws made.

The Nets made just 2-of-16 3-pointers and were outrebounded,
55-40.

"We are not stopping people from scoring and we can't score and
that's a problem," Douglas said. "We came out not focused and
not ready to go. The message is simple: Look at the scoreboard,
look at the Celtics. It's like haywire over there and we come
in here and play like that and let them off the hook."